It’s a doggone shame.
A lady whose dog was misplaced at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has been offered $1,800 by Delta Airlines, which the girl’s attorney has called an “insult,” in line with CBS correspondent David Begnaud.
Paula Rodriguez was booked on a flight to San Francisco by means of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on August 18 when US Customs and Border Patrol on the Atlanta airport detained her over missing visa credentials.
Eventually, officers decided that Rodriguez wouldn’t be allowed to enter the country, and ordered her to remain at a jail overnight, where she wouldn’t be allowed to have her dog until she could board a flight back to the Dominican Republic the following day.
Meanwhile, Delta promised to observe Maia, Rodriguez’s dog, as she awaited deportation.
But when it became time to board her flight home the following day, Rodriguez was told that her rescue pooch was nowhere to be found.
On account of US regulations, officers told Rodriguez that she wouldn’t be allowed to stay on the airport to look for the dog, so she reluctantly boarded without Maia with the hope that Delta would put her dog on the following flight out.
On Friday, CBS’s Begnaud said that while the “devasted” Rodriguez returned to the Dominican Republic, her mother has traveled to Atlanta to assist Delta’s seek for Maia. They reportedly scoured the airport and shelters around town, turning up no trace of Maia.
Rodriguez believes her dog escaped its soft, pink travel crate while she was being questioned by border patrol officers. Now, the dog should be missing — and terrified — within the country’s largest airport.
“She’s been missing for greater than 72 hours in the most important airport in america,” Rodriguez told Atlanta News First in an August 22 report. “Without food, without water, she should be scared.”
Now that it has been greater than two weeks, Delta has said in a press release that its $1,800 gesture is not an “offer of compensation” and insisted they “have shown empathy through many actions, gestures and communications with our customer.”
Deferring their attorneys, the airline added that it “stays heartbroken” over the matter.
Rodriguez, nonetheless, thinks Delta’s efforts have fallen short, said Begnaud.
“Should you’re flying out and in of Atlanta — this might sound silly, but keep an eye fixed out for this dog,” he urged in a TikTok report. “There’s a probability she’s still on the airport property.”
“She could have gotten out, so in case you live in Atlanta, in case you live anywhere near the airport, please have an eye fixed out for this dog.”
Airline crews in Atlanta are “still looking out,” Begnaud reported, and Rodriguez has been instructed to succeed in out to Delta’s lawyers regarding the investigation.
Within the meantime, Daniela Rodriguez, Paula’s sister, has launched a fund-raiser “with the sincere aim of raising funds to cover the expenses to get one of the best resources available to try to locate Maia.”
She writes: “Now, we’re forced to take matters into our own hands. This horrific situation has left my sister sleepless, with constant panic attacks and no appetite. I don’t need her to worsen. That’s the reason now we have resorted to the 1000’s of people that have [shown] us their support because the story got here out within the news. Maia and Paula need hope, all of us do. Hope that they might be together again.”
“It is a time for humans, strangers to come back together against all odds of a multi-billion dollar airline not claiming responsibility for his or her actions,” wrote Daniela. “We’d like to take motion.”
